Nigeria's President Bola Tinubu declared a nationwide security emergency due to surging violence, often targeting Christians. The declaration followed the kidnapping of 315 students and teachers from a Catholic school. Tinubu plans to deploy more police officers, expand military recruitment, and redeploy security personnel. The U.S. designated Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern for religious freedom violations. Recent incidents include the abduction of schoolgirls and an attack on a church during a live-streamed service.
14 days ago
Nigeria's President Bola Tinubu declared a nationwide security emergency on November 26, 2025, amid escalating violence targeting Christians and others.1 This followed the kidnapping of 315 students and teachers from St. Mary’s Catholic School in Niger State five days earlier.1 Tinubu announced plans to recruit 20,000 additional police officers, expand Nigerian Armed Forces enlistment, and redeploy security personnel to high-risk areas.1
Nigeria, with 239 million people divided between Muslim-majority north and Christian-majority south, faces flashpoints in the Middle Belt.1 Recent surges in militant activity include the November 17 abduction of 25 girls from a school in Kebbi State, all later rescued.1 On November 19, gunmen attacked Christ Apostolic Church in Kwara State, killing two and kidnapping the pastor and worshippers.1
The St. Mary’s kidnapping on November 21 marked one of Nigeria's largest school abductions, with 50 students escaping but two parents dying from distress; one parent, a catechist, has four children still held.1 These events drew global attention after U.S. President Donald Trump designated Nigeria a Country of Particular Concern on November 1, threatening to cut aid and intervene against Islamic terrorists.1
Trump's warning highlighted grave religious freedom violations, pressuring Nigeria, a major U.S. aid recipient.1 Pope Leo XIV, in his November 23 Angelus address, appealed for the immediate release of the St. Mary’s hostages and urged authorities to act swiftly.1 This international scrutiny contributed to Tinubu's emergency measures, announced under significant external pressure.1
The declaration polarized Nigerians: supporters hailed it as bold, while opponents called it damage control.1 Western advocates for persecuted Christians expressed cautious optimism.1 Fr. Benedict Kiely of Nasarean.org viewed it as a positive response to long-ignored Christian persecution, driven by U.S. pressure.1
John Newton of Aid to the Church in Need noted greater trust in Tinubu from Nigerian Church leaders compared to predecessors, citing optimistic receptions from Archbishop Matthew Man-Oso Ndagoso and Bishop Matthew Kukah.1 Newton suggested the measures could enhance protection for vulnerable Christian communities in the Middle Belt if effectively implemented.1
While the emergency signals intent to address instability, its success remains uncertain amid ongoing scrutiny.1 Enhanced security could safeguard churches, schools, and farming settlements, potentially reducing attacks.1 However, sustained international monitoring and domestic follow-through will determine if it truly aids Nigeria's Christians.1
Does Nigeria’s security emergency safeguard Christian religious freedom?
Nigeria's ongoing security emergency, characterized by widespread violence from terrorist groups, banditry, and ethnic-religious conflicts, poses profound challenges to the religious freedom of its Christian population. Far from safeguarding this fundamental right, the crisis has exacerbated vulnerabilities, leading to targeted attacks on churches, communities, and individuals, as highlighted in numerous papal and episcopal statements. Catholic teachings emphasize that true security must protect human dignity and the free exercise of faith, yet the current situation in Nigeria reveals a failure to do so, with calls from Church leaders for urgent governmental action to restore peace and justice. This analysis draws on historical and contemporary Church documents to examine the interplay between insecurity and religious liberty, underscoring the need for solidarity, dialogue, and effective protection.
Nigeria has faced escalating insecurity for decades, with recent waves of violence intensifying the humanitarian crisis. Terrorist organizations like Boko Haram and the Islamic State-West Africa Province have perpetrated attacks in the northeast, while armed herdsmen, bandits, and gunmen target villages, farmers, and travelers in the middle belt and northwest. This has displaced around three million people internally, creating a landscape of fear and instability that the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Nigeria describes as having reached "a higher scale than we had ever seen before." Economic policies, such as fuel subsidy removals and currency devaluation, compound these issues by deepening poverty and corruption, which the bishops identify as root causes alongside governance failures.
Papal interventions have consistently addressed this emergency as a moral imperative. In 1969, Pope Paul VI appealed to Nigerian bishops amid civil war, urging an end to hostilities through negotiation rather than violence, emphasizing the Church's role in fostering peace amid suffering, particularly for children. Similarly, in 1970, he called on the international community to prevent further bloodshed in the Nigerian conflict, stressing respect for human rights and the Holy See's commitment to humanitarian aid. More recent appeals, such as Pope Benedict XVI's in 2010 following floods and violence in northern Nigeria, and Pope Francis's in 2017 after a church massacre, express profound distress over attacks that spare no one, including defenseless children, and invoke prayers for reconciliation. These statements frame the security emergency not as a protective measure but as a tragic escalation of hatred that demands global solidarity.
In 2025, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) echoed these concerns in a letter to Nigeria's bishops following killings in Benue State, joining in prayers for peace and justice while condemning "relentless attacks on innocent and defenceless communities." Pope Leo XIV's prayers for "security, justice, and peace" specifically for rural Christian communities in Benue underscore the ongoing peril. Collectively, these sources portray the emergency as a failure of state protection, where violence—often ethnically and religiously motivated—undermines national unity rather than safeguarding citizens.
The security crisis directly imperils Christian religious freedom, manifesting in targeted violence that disrupts worship, education, and communal life. Church documents repeatedly document attacks on places of worship and Christian populations, revealing how insecurity erodes the right to practice faith freely. For instance, Pope Francis in 2017 decried a massacre inside a Nigerian church and violence against the Christian community in the Central African Republic (with parallels to Nigeria), praying that "every form of hatred and violence may cease" and such crimes in sacred spaces "will never be repeated." This highlights a perversion where religious sites become targets, violating the dignity of believers gathered in prayer.
Pope John Paul II, in addresses to Nigerian ambassadors, warned of ethnic rivalries and religious antagonism erupting into "violent clashes which have already claimed many lives," posing "serious threats to progress along the path of national unity." He stressed that resolving such conflicts requires justice and solidarity, without room for "intimidation and domination of the poor and the weak" or abuse of power. In 2004, he reiterated that "tensions between diverse ethnic and religious communities, escalating to the point of violence and even murder," must be defused through dialogue and reconciliation, affirming the Church's commitment to religious freedom via education and social services. Yet, the persistence of these issues indicates that security measures have not adequately protected Christians, allowing "recourse to violence in the name of religious belief" to pervert true faith.
Broader Catholic teaching on religious freedom, as articulated in Vatican II's Dignitatis Humanae, reinforces that governments must acknowledge parents' rights to religious education and prevent any system that excludes faith formation or imposes burdens on believers. In Nigeria, where insecurity displaces families and disrupts Catholic schools—vital for transmitting faith—this right is compromised. The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) affirms parents' fundamental duty to choose schools aligned with their convictions, with public authorities obligated to guarantee this without unjust interference. However, amid banditry and kidnappings, such freedoms are illusory, as communities live under constant threat. The USCCB's 2024 letter notes how violence leaves "the sad and dangerous impression" that authorities are "unable—or worse still, unwilling—to take up the responsibilities of their office," exacerbating disaffection and risking anarchy. Thus, the emergency does not safeguard religious freedom; it actively endangers it by fostering an environment where Christians cannot freely evangelize, educate, or worship.
The Catholic Church has responded with unwavering advocacy, urging Nigerian authorities to prioritize security as a pathway to protecting religious liberty. Pope Paul VI in 1968 lamented the "conflict that already for too long has been staining flourishing regions of Nigeria with blood," calling for magnanimity and peaceful solutions. This theme persists: the USCCB in 2024 recommends decentralizing security (e.g., state police), investing in agriculture to combat poverty, and tackling corruption to empower civil society, including the Church's networks like Veritas University and justice commissions. They propose partnering with the U.S. to stabilize the region, viewing Nigeria's crisis as pivotal to countering Sahel extremism.
Pope John Paul II emphasized that religious freedom enables Catholics to contribute to societal progress, calling on governments to ease visa issues for missionaries and promote interfaith dialogue. The Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church stresses parental rights in education, with civil society aiding families in faith formation, a principle undermined in insecure contexts. Recent USCCB statements align with Pope Leo XIV's appeals, declaring nine days of prayer for Nigeria and echoing bishops' demands to end attacks. These efforts reflect the Church's teaching that security must serve the common good, fostering "universal brotherhood" and a "culture of human solidarity" rather than division.
Catholic doctrine views religious freedom as intrinsic to human dignity, inseparable from peace and justice. The security emergency in Nigeria, by failing to protect Christians from violence, contravenes this, as seen in the Church's consistent pleas for intervention. While sources like Dignitatis Humanae provide a universal framework, Nigeria-specific documents reveal a gap between ideal and reality: insecurity not only threatens lives but also the transmission of faith across generations. Parents' rights to Catholic education, enshrined in canon law and the CCC, are hollow without safe communities.
To safeguard Christian religious freedom, Nigeria requires robust, inclusive security reforms that address root causes like corruption and poverty, as urged by the bishops. The Church stands ready as a partner, leveraging its interfaith ties and grassroots presence to promote reconciliation. Until such measures are implemented, the emergency remains a peril rather than a protector, calling all people of good will to pray and act for a Nigeria where faith flourishes in peace.
In summary, Nigeria's security emergency does not safeguard Christian religious freedom; it severely undermines it through targeted violence and systemic failures. Church teachings demand urgent protection of this right, with hope rooted in dialogue, justice, and divine providence.